In the Matter of Evelyn A. Miller

Evelyn Ann Miller, a Georgia attorney also licensed in Virginia, worked handling real estate closings for a title agency while running her own law firm. She admitted that in 2017, funds from six settlements totaling more than $250,000 were supposed to be held in escrow for clients long-term, but instead were wired directly into her law firm's checking account, and that money from four of those six transactions was spent rather than kept safe. After Virginia's bar disciplinary board accepted her consent to revoke her Virginia law license, Miller notified the State Bar of Georgia and asked the Supreme Court of Georgia to let her voluntarily surrender her Georgia license rather than face a formal disciplinary case. She said all the misused escrow funds have since been repaid. The State Bar supported her request, and the court agreed, treating the surrender as equivalent to disbarment.

The court accepted Miller's petition for voluntary discipline and allowed her to surrender her law license, an action treated as equivalent to disbarment, because her admitted conduct in diverting and spending escrow funds would violate Georgia's rules on safekeeping client property and she faced substantially similar discipline already imposed in Virginia.

Clients and title companies who trust attorneys to safeguard escrow money can see how Georgia disciplines lawyers who misuse those funds, even when the misconduct occurred through reciprocal discipline from another state, reinforcing accountability for lawyers handling real estate settlement funds.

Voluntary surrender of license accepted (tantamount to disbarment)

1. Under Georgia's reciprocal discipline rule (Rule 9.4 (b) of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct), a lawyer disciplined in another state must notify the Georgia Bar and is subject to substantially similar discipline here, and Miller admitted she met that standard after Virginia revoked her license.
2. Miller's own admissions described diverting escrowed settlement funds meant to be held safely for clients into her law firm's operating checking account, and spending some of that money instead of holding it in escrow, across six 2017 real estate transactions totaling over $250,000.
3. The State Bar reviewed these admissions and concluded they were sufficient to show violations of the Georgia rules requiring lawyers to safeguard client and third-party property (Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct 1.15 (I) (a) and 1.15 (II) (b)).
4. Because the admitted misconduct matched conduct already sanctioned in Virginia and would independently violate Georgia's safekeeping-of-property rules, the court found it in the best interest of the public and the legal profession to accept the voluntary surrender rather than require separate disciplinary proceedings.

• attorney discipline
• license surrender
• escrow funds
• reciprocal discipline
• State Bar of Georgia